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Diminished Sensitivity to Sad Facial Expressions in High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders is Associated with Symptomatology and Adaptive Functioning

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Abstract

Prior studies implicate facial emotion recognition (FER) difficulties among individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD); however, many investigations focus on FER accuracy alone and few examine ecological validity through links with everyday functioning. We compared FER accuracy and perceptual sensitivity (from neutral to full expression) between 42 adolescents with high functioning (IQ > 80) ASD and 31 typically developing adolescents (matched on age, IQ, sex ratio) across six basic emotions and examined links between FER and symptomatology/adaptive functioning within the ASD group. Adolescents with ASD required more intense facial expressions for accurate emotion identification. Controlling for this overall group difference revealed particularly diminished sensitivity to sad facial expressions in ASD, which was uniquely correlated with ratings of autism-related behavior and adaptive functioning.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Intramural Research Program of the NIH, National Institute of Mental Health. We would like to thank the children and families who so kindly gave their time and energy to assist in this research.

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  1. Laboratory of Brain & Cognition, National Institute of Mental Health, 10 Center Drive, Room 4C104, MSC 1366, Bethesda, MD, 20892-1366, USA

    Gregory L. Wallace, Laura K. Case, Madeline B. Harms, Jennifer A. Silvers, Lauren Kenworthy & Alex Martin

  2. Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders, Children’s National Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA

    Lauren Kenworthy

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  1. Gregory L. Wallace
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  2. Laura K. Case
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  3. Madeline B. Harms
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Correspondence to Gregory L. Wallace.

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Wallace, G.L., Case, L.K., Harms, M.B. et al. Diminished Sensitivity to Sad Facial Expressions in High Functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders is Associated with Symptomatology and Adaptive Functioning. J Autism Dev Disord 41, 1475–1486 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-010-1170-0

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